In recent years, electrically-driven vehicles are being developed as environmentally-friendly automobiles at a rapid pace. Charging infrastructures for the electrically-driven vehicles are largely classified into a charging facility for home use that utilizes a household power source at the end of a power network and another charging facility for public use that is available to the general public and provided in an urban area, beneath a road surface or the like.
Also, in view of convenience, the charging facility for home use is required for the popularization of the electrically-driven vehicles and, hence, standard homes, offices and the like have started introducing a slow charging facility that utilizes a commercially available 100V- or 200V-power source.
In the case of the charging facility for home use, a charging cable for an electrically-driven vehicle for connecting a receptacle outlet of the commercially available power source and a connector of the electrically-driven vehicle is used to charge a battery of the electrically-driven vehicle.
This charging cable is provided with a power plug to be connected to the receptacle outlet of the commercially available power source and a charging coupler to be connected to the connector of the electrically-driven vehicle. When the battery is charged, the power plug is inserted into a receptacle outlet provided on, for example, an outer wall of a house.
However, this charging cable has the potential for causing abnormal heat generation due to incomplete connection or arc tracking between the receptacle outlet and the power plug. Because of this, a charging cable having a temperature sensor for detecting the temperature of the power plug has been proposed, wherein if the temperature sensor detects that the temperature of the power plug has exceeded a predetermined temperature, a control signal is sent to a switching circuit for opening and closing an electric circuit between the power plug and the charging coupler so that power supply from the power plug to the connector of the electrically-driven vehicle may be halted (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
In the case of this charging cable, an earth leakage detecting portion for detecting an earth leakage is provided in addition to the temperature sensor for detecting the temperature of the power plug, and if the earth leakage detecting portion detects an earth leakage, power supply from the power plug to the connector of the electrically-driven vehicle is halted.
Patent Document 1: JP 2010-110055 A